That's what one of our most senior lecturers was telling us this week. Telling us that in 30 years of elite sports practice they have never prescribed a single stretch to anyone.
What do you think of that then?
Would be interested to hear the rational there. Recovering from tendinitis and having to do a lot of tedious stretching.
I read a paper on streching a few years back that concluded that 23 years worth of streching would save but one injury.
I don't know what I think about any of it.
Stretching as per physio's instructions is sorting out my bad shoulder, probably would've been fixed a lot sooner if I'd started the prescribed stretches sooner. So I think your senior lecturer is wrong.
They are going along the lines of prescribing strengthening the opposing muscles. They say that if you contract a muscle the opposite muscle is forced to relax and that this is a better way of lengthening the muscle than stretching. They gave us a wee bit on stretching injured muscles and how it actually shortens them too.
It was a big thing in the fitness media about 5 (maybe 10?) years ago. It all stemmed from an Australian Army study that showed recuits made to stretch got no more injuries than those that don't. I remember some articles on power lifting that discussed stretching reducing 1RM lifts too.
I'm getting old. It was 10 years ago...
[url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10694106 ]A randomized trial of preexercise stretching for prevention of lower-limb injury[/url]
[b]CONCLUSION:[/b] A typical muscle stretching protocol performed during preexercise warm-ups does not produce clinically meaningful reductions in risk of exercise-related injury in army recruits. Fitness may be an important, modifiable risk factor.
My immediate question would be in what context that piece of information was given.
Anyway, in the dim and distant past when I was studying such things I was taught that static stretching as part of a warm up for sport was A Bad Thing, but that static stretching did have it's uses for improving flexibility/range of motion and as part of a cool down activity.
I rarely stretch before exercise.
If I don't spend five minutes stretching after running then I'll be stiff as hell the next day.
Can you give us the context?
AFAIK stretching before you're warm is likely to cause damage and therefore not encouraged. But stretching afterwards is important to limit soreness.
My experience is same as Jambo
Was in a class on sports injury management and was related to both treatment and prevention of injuries.
As for muscles soreness after exercise I've never had it unless I've done a big step change in intensity of activity.
I stretch before biking as I find my legs don't get as tired whilst riding, and if I stretch after I'm not aching at all normally the next day where as if I don't I can be sore for days
so for me I think it's beneficial
i find it very painful when you stretch the truth. Does that count?
Junkyard, I just find you boring and predictable.
my dog has a good stretch just before going out and also when he wakes up
so maybe nature knows more than experts
Yes there is stretching and stretching. Apparently, current thinking is as above, not to static stretch before exercise, rather to warm up gradually. Static stretching after exercise when warm definitely increases flexibility though, I can vouch for that 🙂
I'm too impatient to warm up with a slow ride, and if I don't stretch before I get on the bike I'll be aching for days.
stretching is boring unless you're having a good yawn 🙂
I misssed out a wink to be fair ?
I wont repeat it if it causes offence and , in fairness, you do seem to have calmed down of late.
my dog has a good stretch just before going out and also when he wakes upso maybe nature knows more than experts
Yeh I've always noticed how those antelopes have a good stretch before running away from those lions.